We don’t typically ask ourselves, “Am I jerk?” That’s because most people tend to know themselves relatively well. We know if we’re talkative or quiet. We know if we’re creative. Yet, we don’t yet have a full understanding of jerkitude. There is no scientific designation that matches the range of the application of the term “jerk.” It’s hard to determine if the guy who cuts in line or the coworker who wrecks every staff meeting are equal jerks.
Source: Nautilus, September 15, 2016.
Jerks see the world through goggles that dim others’ humanity. The server at the restaurant is not a potentially interesting person with a distinctive personality, life story, and set of goals to which you might possible relate. Instead, he is merely a tool by which to secure a meal or a fool on which you can vent your anger. The people ahead of you at Starbucks are faceless and of no account. Those beneath you in the social hierarchy lack your talents and deserve to get the scut work.
INSIGHTS: We all slip on the jerk goggles now and then. Take off those goggles and remember the lesson from Patrick Malone’s post, Real empathy is not about you. The platinum rule is to “treat others the way they want to be treated.”